All that cushion that Homer built on D, and that some people complained about as being a waste of Cap Space, is now possibly down to no cushion at all... Walker out and Pronger most likely out means not only no #8 D, but no #7 either.

Good news is that what Homer was shielding us against in the postseason will get its out of town run in Philadelphia... We should be okay for the short to medium haul with five veteran and quality NHL veterans and one #6 feature player who the organization has had in its plans as a possible future regular.

... Bad news is the cushion may now be gone (if Pronger is out any length) and Syvret is waiver bait and the other Phantoms are new meat.

Playing reasonable minutes with Bart, making sure not to push him with too many... and to spot him in the proper situations... the other five should be just fine IMO upping the workload a tad. They should be better than any of the other past three pairings made up of two good pairings and one filler one... and even when they were 100% healthy.

I know Kimmo is going to be the go to guy, but I'm excited to see Mezsaros get even more key minutes. This guy has been near flawless this entire season and it will be interesting to see if he can get up to even a higher level

Toe doesn't sound too bad. There's also only 2 games left before Christmas break. The team should manage without him.

Probably depends on the severity but the schedule is in the team's favor. Perhaps the most noteworthy toe injury in the team's history happened to Bernie Parent during a preseason game and it was announced that he'd be sidelined for 4-to-6 weeks. It coincided with Wayne Stephenson's contract dispute but when a special protective device was constructed for Parent, he returned to action almost immediately and Stephenson lost much of his leverage.

Is this toe issue speculation or is there an article that specifically states it's his toe? I saw ankle, ankle, then someone brought up a toe...did I miss something?

Sam at the Inq. was on WIP a couple of hours after the game and he mentioned then it was "lower leg/foot." Yesterday's evaluation mentioned a foot/ankle specialist. From there, the speculation within the print media has been a toe but not necessarily confined to a toe.

Example, Tim P.:

Quote:

Pronger was struck on the right foot. He may have a fractured toe, according to a source.

Sam at the Inq. was on WIP a couple of hours after the game and he mentioned then it was "lower leg/foot." Yesterday's evaluation mentioned a foot/ankle specialist. From there, the speculation within the print media has been a toe but not necessarily confined to a toe.

Example, Tim P.:

You need ankle specialist for fractured toe? Interesting...

It takes more than 24 hours to diagnose a problem? We either have crappy doctors or crappy reporters, or both. The whole thing is freaking annoying.

In this instance, the specialist has been termed "foot/ankle." Foot includes toes. The source Tim is utilizing can be anyone from front office to medical staff, so the speculation will be varied until the diagnosis is rendered.

Not the worst thing in the world ... will have him fresher for late in the season / playoffs, will give some others guys some playing time, and maybe he can rest his knee, which he's essentially said hasn't been 100 percent all year.

I'm not terribly concerned, at least the Holmgren Lovers will tell us all that. We'll now get to see how brilliant it was that Holmgren spent money on Meszaros and O'Donnell and kept Carle around (under the assumption that he is a competent defenseman, which is no safe assumption), will now get to see the fruits of the brilliance of that argument. Who really is and who really is not good now that they can't hide behind Pronger?

I'm not terribly concerned, at least the Holmgren Lovers will tell us all that. We'll now get to see how brilliant it was that Holmgren spent money on Meszaros and O'Donnell and kept Carle around (under the assumption that he is a competent defenseman, which is no safe assumption), will now get to see the fruits of the brilliance of that argument. Who really is and who really is not good now that they can't hide behind Pronger?

You can't fault the OD signing. But Walker is garbage and, even healthy, would be exposed.

Like we talked about yesterday, Kimmo will be seeing huge minutes for the next 4-6 weeks.